London's biggest listing in five years opens below its price

Airtel Money, the mobile-payments arm of Airtel Africa, began trading on the London Stock Exchange on Friday in what The Independent called the City's biggest listing in five years, the largest since Deliveroo and Wise went public in 2021. The shares, sold at £1.96 in the offer, briefly touched £2.00 in the first hour of conditional dealing, then slipped below the offer price. They were down 2.0 per cent at 192.1p by 12:15 BST, Sharecast reported. Reuters headlined its report that Airtel Money "slips below IPO offer price" in a $7bn debut.

The listing is formally of Airtel Mobile Commerce NV, under the ticker AMC. The offer sold 270 million existing shares for about £529m, valuing the company at about £5.3bn, the Economic Times said. The arithmetic checks: 270 million shares at £1.96 is £529.2m. The sellers were minority shareholders, including the Qatar Investment Authority and TPG, the Economic Times reported. Mastercard Asia/Pacific is making up to 27 million more shares available through an over-allotment option, which would lift the offer to £582m, about 11 per cent of the company, Airtel Money said. Airtel Africa, which owns 77.85 per cent, said it was not selling any shares in the offer and expects to remain a long-term strategic shareholder.

Only people who were allocated shares can trade for now. Unconditional trading is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, 14 October, when the broader market can buy. Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, called the debut "a key test for the London market" before trading began, according to The Independent.

The price was lower than hoped. The implied value of about $7bn is below the $8bn to $9bn range previously estimated, Rediff said. Airtel Money had said in September it would publish an indicative price range, the Guardian reported, but on 1 October it announced a single offer price of £1.96. By our subtraction, the gap to the earlier estimate is between $1bn and $2bn. International Finance Corporation, the World Bank's private-sector arm, was allocated 34,285,714 shares for £67.2m, its full cornerstone commitment, Airtel Money said.

The business is large. Airtel Money operates in 13 sub-Saharan African countries and has about 53 million monthly active users, according to the Guardian and the Economic Times. Airtel Africa's annual results put mobile-money revenue at $1.355bn in the year to 31 March 2026, before intra-group eliminations, with underlying EBITDA of $689m and annualised processed value of more than $215bn in the final quarter. Customers use a network of branches and kiosks to load money on to their phones, withdraw cash and use other money services, the Guardian said.

Sunil Mittal, the founder of Airtel and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, presented the listing as a verdict on the UK. "This listing is a vote of confidence in the UK as an attractive global destination for investment, with a stable business and policy environment attractive for long-term investors," he said, according to Rediff. Ian Ferrao, Airtel Money's chief executive, called it, in the company's announcement, "a landmark moment" for the company.

The ownership chain is layered. Bharti Airtel holds 79.2 per cent of Airtel Africa, which owns 77.85 per cent of Airtel Money, so Bharti's indirect economic interest is about 61.6 per cent, Rediff said.

The debut arrived in a week when other issuers pulled back. Komposite reported on Thursday that Firmus closed its IPO book without a clear price, and the Australian data-centre company has since withdrawn its listing. In fintech, Revolut's chief executive said this week that a US listing was always the target, though not before 2028. Airtel Money chose London, and for now it trades about where it was priced.